This week’s official bestseller lists in Norway see Jørn Lier Horst’s The Katharina Code climb once again, this time coming in at No. 3 on the paperback list.

Hedvig Montgomery likewise climbs, claiming the No. 4 spot on the nonfiction list with Parental Magic.

The Truth Will Out, the TV series based on an original idea by the award-winning author and criminologist Leif GW Persson, and adapted for the small screen by Aron Levander and Hans Jörnlind, will premiere on Channel 5 in Sweden on August 21st.

The Truth Will Out centers around police detective Peter Wendel (played by Robert Gustafsson) and his work as he heads a newly started cold case group. Gustafsson is joined in the cast by la Langhammer, Louise Peterhoff and Christopher Wagelin, among others. The psychological drama series is directed by Kjell-Åke Andersson and Liza Farzaneh.

Even before its premiere, the series has received widespread acclaim in Swedish press:

“A series that’s different from the rest, expertly acted and thoroughly thrilling. /…/ A truly excellent series.”
-Aftonbladet

“The Truth Will Out is this TV fall’s most given hit series. /…/ Right from the start, The Truth Will Out has three impressive elements to it: Robert Gustafsson’s deliberate acting, a low-key script where silence is given the same weight as dialogue, and a visual tone almost as familiar as it is foreign to the viewer. /…/ And it’s ambitious: when one episode ends, you long for the next one.”
-Expressen

Palme d’Or winner Bobbie Peers’ new short film To Plant a Flag will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this September.

Peers, who has both written the screenplay and directed the 15 minute long drama comedy, is joined by a cast comprising of among else Jason Schwartzman (Moonrise Kingdom, Darjeeling Limited) and Jake Johnson (New Girl, Jurassic World).

Schwartzman and Johnson play the roles of two hapless NASA trainees sent to the lunar landscapes of Iceland in the early 1960s. Their mission is to train for the 1969 moon landing, but even before leaving Earth the would-be astronauts encounter trouble in the form of an Icelandic sheep farmer. Bobbie Peers’ deft direction ensures no comedic opportunity goes lost in this visually stunning and on the mark short film.

Sam Berger is suspected of a murder he has not committed, and his partner Molly Blom is in a coma. He escapes to the archipelago and waits for an order from the Swedish Security Service’s chief executive. A terrorist attempt is threatening Stockholm and a wanted murderer, who has kidnapped a girl, can go free. Is Berger the solution or part of the problem?

Arne Dahl reaffirms his mastery with Turmoil, a crime novel of international class, in the same spirit as his previous highly acclaimed novels Watching You and Hunted.

The Norwegian bestseller lists for the first week of August are in and Jørn Lier Horst claims the No. 4 spot with The Katharina Code on the paperback list. Ingar Johnsrud’s The Cross I Bear and Jo Nesbø’s Macbeth share the No. 5 spot on the e-book list. Hedvig Montgomery continues to feature on the non-fiction list and comes in at No. 5 with her Parental Magic this week.

Lastly, Jørn Lier Horst & Hans Jørgen Sandnes still occupy the top two positions on the children’s books bestseller list in Norway, coming in at No. 1 with The Search for the Castle’s Secret and No. 2 with Operation Shipwreck.

The bestseller lists for the last week of July are in, and the novels that featured on the list at the start of the summer are still making their mark weeks later. On the e-book list, Ingar Johnsrud’s latest novel The Cross I Bear is No. 3, and is followed by Jo Nesbø’s Macbeth at No. 4. Macbeth is also No. 4 on the hardcover list, where it in turn is accompanied by Jørn Lier Horst & Hans Jørgen Sandnes’ The Search for the Castle’s Secret at No. 5.

On the paperback list, Jo Nesbø makes a third appearance at No. 4, this time with The Thirst. Jørn Lier Horst claims the No. 5 spot with The Katharina Code.

Lastly, Hedvig Montgomery comes in at No. 5 on the nonfiction list, with her Parental Magic.

Hans Rosenfeldt has been nominated for the Best Crime Writing on Television at the British Screenwriters Award 2018 for his show Marcella. This is the sixth year the award will take place in London, and it continues to celebrate the very best in screenwriting in UK TV and film. To see the list of nominees and read about earlier winners, click on “Read more”.

The winner will be announced on September 8th.

Arne Dahl has been shortlisted for the European Crime Fiction Star Award (Ripper Award). The Ripper Award honours a crime fiction author who has rendered outstanding services to crime literature within Europe. Previous winners include Henning Mankell, Fred Vargas, and Jussi Adler Olsen.

To see the list of nominees and to vote, click on “Read more”

The Norwegian Bookseller’s Association has published yet another bestseller list for the first half of 2018. This time the list includes both Norwegian and international titles, and all genres within the fiction category.

The author with the most titles on the list is Jørn Lier Horst, who claims a whopping eight out of fifteen spots. Jo Nesbø is the second most featured author, with two placements to his name. His Macbeth comes in at No. 3, and The Thirst at No. 5.

Jørn Lier Horst then takes over at No. 6 with his and Hans Jørgen Sandnes’ Detective Agency No. 2 books for children. This spring, the bestselling titles from the series are Operation Daffodil, Operation Mummy, Operation Shipwreck, Operation Shadowman, Operation Summer Island, Operation Ghost and Operation Pirate. Jørn also features on the list with his The Katharina Code for adult crime fiction readers.

Jørn Lier Horst & Hans Jørgen Sandnes’ Detective Agency No. 2 tops also the June bestseller list for children’s books. At No. 1 is the latest activity book in the series, The Search for the Castle’s Secret, and at No. 2 is Operation Shipwreck.

Simon Stålenhag’s Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood will become a major TV series co-produced by Amazon Studios and Fox 21 Television Studios. Simon Stålenhag’s art blends elements of futuristic science fiction with images of rural life in Sweden and has reached a big fan-base worldwide.

“Simon Stålenhag’s paintings are renowned for their vision of a not-too-distant, futuristic landscape. We are looking forward to bringing that to life and sharing it with our Prime Video audience,” said Albert Cheng, co-head of television, Amazon Studios.

Writer Nathaniel Halpern (Legion) will serve as showrunner and executive producer for the series, and Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go) will direct the pilot.

To read more about this project, click on “Read more”.

The Nobel Prize in Literature will not be awarded by the Swedish Academy this year. In the wake of that, a new academy has been formed to award an international literary prize.

Sofi Oksanen and Ulf Lundell are both nominated for The New Academy Prize in Literature. The list of nominees is composed by Swedish librarians. Three authors will be singled out from the voting for a final judging by the expert jury. A fourth author will enter the final entirely based on the nominations from the librarians. Of these authors, two will be female and two will be male. The voting closes on August 14th. The winner will be announced on October 14th and presented at a formal event on December 10th.

To see the full list of nominees and to vote, click on “Read more”.

Danish screenwriter Anders August has a wealth of experience in major TV shows, feature films and shorts, and is the recipient of Denmark’s biggest film award: The Nordisk Film Award.

Currently, August is working on the highly anticipated project A Fortunate Man, based on Nobel prize-winning author Henrik Pontoppidan’s 1898 novel Lykke-Per. Set to become both a feature film and a miniseries, it is the biggest fiction project so far from the Danish broadcasting channel TV 2 and ranks as one of the most ambitious European series to date. Produced by Nordisk Film, the feature film will see its premiere in August 2018, with the miniseries airing on Danish TV 2 in 2019.